June 5, 2014 AT 10:17 am

Captain Jack Harkness Costume

Captain Jack Harkness is a fan favorite character in the world of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Other than his signature coat and vortex manipulator, you can piece most of his costume together using off-the-shelf items. Matt Munson did exactly that and achieved a look very close to the dashing Captain’s. He broke down where he purchased everything, and it’s beneficial to read because it shows that sometimes cosplay is all about hunting down and purchasing the right items. Here’s where he found the shirt, suspenders, and belt for the outfit:

Shirt – From Old Navy. Men’s Non-Iron Regular-Fit. I chose “Ink Blue”. Jack wears many different shirt and suspender combinations in the show, so you’ll need to pick one you like and go from there. I like the navy blue, and this shirt, with the light colored buttons, seems a decent match. It’s not perfect, and it’s not the same manufacturer as the ones used in the show, but it looks great.

To attach the suspenders to the trousers, I went to Michael’s (My LEAST favorite store) and just grabbed off the shelf a bag of black buttons. They came in a variety of sizes and hole counts. I chose ones that best matched the ones on the pants, though it didn’t matter as they would be covered by the belt.

Belt – I am wearing a medium brown belt from Fossil. This was something I had on hand that happened to match some screen caps I found. Someone on LJ sourced the manufacturer of one of Jack’s actual costume belts to Belstaff, though I found the belt to be prohibitively expensive for my needs. See the bottom of this post for a link to the LJ article.